Siaru Kualo
=Biography= Siaru Kualo was born on the planet Ossus to a former Assassin of the old Sith Empire, from before the old civil war involving Norik Kun and his allies, and a young Ysanna woman whose own sensitivity was limited to supplying her blind eyes with sight through the Force. Five years later, Siaru's older brother - angry with their mother for taking in orphans on Ossus, and seeking to be trained as their father was - took the boy and traveled to Nassus, led there by the Force. An Acolyte Siaru would block out much of the first five years of his life, nearly forgetting his mother, his father, and his orphan "siblings". The only blood-relative he remembered for much of his life on Nassus was his brother - and that memory was clouded by his training. His brother, he had been told, was weak - obsessed with the past and worried about the future - and he had not stood up to the tests of Sith Lord Rashael Koss. In turn, he had been slain. Siaru was raised as an Acolyte of the Sith, among the earliest to enter into Niflheim. He was trained under numerous masters until he began his tutelage into the Assassins. Master Laeren Fyrhtu taught him then, leading him in training meant specifically for Sith Assassins; he learned how to manipulate his surroundings - not only the minds of his opponents, but the very physics of his presence, so that he could avoid detection from both living beings and machines. Siaru developed a relationship with the young Acolyte Kreil, acting (rather unintentionally) as a sort of role model. Kreil was enamored with Siaru and sought to emulate him in every way, despite being eight years Siaru's junior. As part of Siaru's final training, Master Fyrhtu and Acolyte Headmaster Maegein Scierel gave Siaru the task of being a mentor to a young Kiri Acolyte named Cadence Vasallo. Siaru protested at first, but ultimately agreed - as though he had any choice. He met with the girl a number of times, usually for guiding her meditation and discussing her prowess in the Force. When Siaru graduated a few months later, he severed all ties with her and did not see her again. When Siaru graduated, he was given two gifts by the Sith Empire: the first was the vessel Infernal Wyrm; the second was the ship's controlling AI, Ardia. He named them both. An Assassin Siaru's first mission could hardly be classified as such. He was ordered by Master Scierel to track down Kreil, who had fled from Niflheim; he was to bring him back or kill him, whichever suited the situation best. Siaru quickly and easily found Kreil trudging through the wastelands to the south of Niflheim; by the time he landed the Wyrm at Kreil's location, the boy was exhausted from the trek and confused from Siaru's mental invasions. Siaru convinced the boy that he was not worthless to the Sith, and that he should return to finish his training. Siaru's second mission was to hunt down Kreil's older brother, Derik Vaorn, who was too weak to be trained by the Sith, but had sought to "rescue" his brother from them since he was taken. Siaru found him on the vessel Parsec Cutter, a fugitive from Sith space headed for Bimmisaari. Ardia took out the ship's shield generators, weapons, engines, and communications with a few well-placed shots; Siaru boarded the vessel. With little effort, he hid his presence from the crew of the vessel until the kill moment, when he slew Vaorn. He questioned the captain of the vessel, Steven Miller; arriving at the conclusion that Vaorn had said too much in his time on the Cutter, Siaru killed the crew and had Ardia destroy the ship. At that point, Master Scierel conferred the responsibility of providing Siaru with missions to one of the Masters of the Assassins, Harglit. The first mission Harglit gave him was, as Harglit himself said, a test. The old Master provided coordinates and a basic description of the targets on Ossus. Siaru went to the coordinates, hiding his presence to those within, until he found the primary target - a blind woman, about fifty years of age. Using the Force to see, she recognized Siaru - her son. Siaru then understood the test as his childhood memories came flooding back - this woman was his mother; the children in the house were foster-siblings. Making a rash decision, Siaru rescued them from himself; he took them to Ardia, ordering her to take them to the temperate, uninhabited planet designated only by the code SO93162. While she did that, Siaru found acceptable replacements for his family and manipulated the evidence so that they would be unidentifiable - he faked the deaths of a number of children and his own mother to placate the Sith. Harglit accepted his explanation, doubtful of its truth but pressed by the uprisings in the Empire. The Civil War From then on, all of Siaru's missions were based around the Sith Civil War. He was ordered to kill the Governor of Syren, Dol Ayrist. By the time he returned to Niflheim at the height of the civil war, he had killed a total of eight policians and three naval officers, counting Ayrist. He found himself garnering less and less emotion from each killing, so he tried to extract the emotions of his foes to augment his own as he killed them - just to equal the emotion he felt with his first assassination. While enroute back to Niflheim, Siaru and Ardia completed a holographic image for Ardia to use at possible consoles. As they arrived in orbit, Siaru discovered that the civil war had, at last, come to Nassus. Siaru ordered Ardia to pick an empty hangar and land while he geared up for combat. Once on the ground, Siaru found the hangar to be emptier than he expected. He could feel the fighting in Niflheim, the war and the pain; it empowered him, infused him with strength. Kreil met him at the entrance to the hangar; they argued. Kreil, corrupted by the lies of Hej Mallar and Diego Leiss, tried to convince Siaru to join the rebels - and Siaru refused. They fought briefly, Kreil's lack of combat training and experience showing through his hatred and resolve. Siaru quickly gained the upper hand and disarmed the boy; unable to stop his passion, he cut through Kreil's neck, leaving on the spine attached. Siaru was temporarily racked with grief; he mourned that a mere child was forced to fight and die in a rebellion - when he should have been playing, training, learning... living the life of a youth. These emotions were cut off as others approached the hangar; Siaru hid himself in the Force until he saw his old master, Laeren Fyrhtu, with a group of Acolytes from the loyalist side of the battle. They joined forces, determined to bring the fight to Mallar and end the battle with as few casualties as possible. Siaru and his fellow Assassins reached Mallar's command center with ease; they removed most of the Acolyte defenders without even being detected. At last, Siaru confronted Mallar himself. The two dueled; Siaru placed himself entirely in the battle, ignoring all else until at last he slew the rebel. Upon returning to his senses, however, Siaru discovered that Diego Leiss had arrived at Niflheim and that he now stood alone in the enemy command center. Diego attacked him through the Force, launching him through the main doors to the room. Siaru took advantage of the space and his intense emotions to close the door and escape before a real duel could begin. Unable to reach the dormitories, he returned to the hangar, where he informed Ardia of the situation. He was fortunate, because at that moment, the Marauder Drael-Ynn arrived with an army of loyalist Marines. Invigorated, Siaru took a company of those Marines to return to Diego and press the attack. He ordered Ardia to take the Infernal Wyrm into orbit and assist Admiral Taelic Lankeneau with the naval battle. Siaru reached into the Force, pulling emotions, fears, hatred, comraderie, friendship, even love out of the many combatants in Niflheim, out of the very place itself, until he was truly rejuvenated, nearly healing his earlier injuries as he approached Diego's position. Entering the rebel command center, he, at the head of a company of Marines, faced down the Sith Sorceror, at the head of his own company. They agreed to exclude the Marines in the battle, as it was between the two of them, even if such a battle was inevitable - and Siaru feared that it was. The duel was intense; where Diego had experience, Siaru had the passion and increasingly imminent victory of the loyalist faction. In each lull, the duelists taunted each other, inciting more anger and increasing the power of the fight. Diego began to get the upper hand when all Nine Hells broke loose. Master Scierel arrived with a large number of Marines, having won most of the battles outside the dormitories; on edge, the Marines in the command center opened fire, and Siaru took advantage of the confusion to disappear through the Force. Siaru could only watch as Diego and Scierel dueled, the rebel leader taking advantage of the chaos to cut down Siaru's old master. Siaru took the pain from the breaking of that bond and channeled it into power. As Diego fled the area, Siaru anticipated his direction and went to the hangar to cut him off. The Ysanna discovered the Assassin that had accompanied Diego to the surface already there, and slew him with ease. When Diego arrived, he was completely alone and was facing an infuriated and slightly rejuvenated opponent. Siaru dug into the Force, pulling as much power as he could into himself; the old Sith Sorceror had begun to lose his mind in the heat of his losses, so confusing him was easy. The Assassin impaled his foe on his sword, taking a moment to ask why Diego had returned to the Sith Empire. Diego had made grandiose claims about deserving to rule the Empire, but when pressed, his only answer was to mention the name Seth DeSchaen. Recuperating After the end of the war, the Sith Empire found tensions rising outside their borders. Laeren Fyrhtu, acting-leader of the Order in the apparent absence of Rashael Koss and Seth DeSchaen, sent Siaru out to patrol the borders and keep a keen watch for invaders - whether from the Crimson Empire or from the Jedi Order or even the New Republic. Siaru had heard of the attacks of the Jedi, and had heard that the Sith Empire was being blamed for it - which did not surprise him, given the government's history. But he worried that an invasion would cripple the Empire before it finished rebuilding itself. Category:Sith Empire Category:Notable Characters Category:Archangel